


Zodiac

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Angst, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-18
Updated: 2008-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-15 04:21:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 18,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14783511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: Donna's the victim of a crime.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

Agent Casper sipped his coffee, removed his sunglasses, and hiked his bag further up on his shoulder as he entered George Washington Hospital early in the morning. He walked up to the nurses' station and flashed his FBI badge. 

"I'm Agent Casper with the FBI." He announced needlessly. "You have a Jane Doe?" 

"Yes, Agent Casper." the nurse replied. "Follow me. I'll take you to her." 

Mike followed the nurse from behind the desk and down the corridors of the emergency room. "DCPD says she was found by the dumpster near an apartment building. She had no wallet or cell phone with her, so they are assuming her purse was stolen. She's been beaten pretty badly and has cuts on her hip and upper arm. She was found unconscious and hasn't regained consciousness since she's been here." 

"How long has that been?" 

"She was brought in about two hours ago." 

"So she was found roughly around 4:30 this morning?" 

"That's what we think." 

"Has she been sexually assaulted?" Mike asked. 

"It didn't appear so from the doctor's initial examination." 

"Why did they call the FBI?" Mike asked. 

"Well, like I said, there was no identification with her. But she did have a set of keys with her. On the key ring was a White House key chain, which the DCPD said you can't buy anywhere and can only get from the White House." the nurse explained. 

"Leading you to believe she's a federal employee." Mike nodded. 

"That's the only thing we can think of at the moment." 

"Well, that would sort of narrow the field." Mike sighed. "But you can go visit the White House, watch the President record his weekly radio address and get a keychain." Mike smiled at the memory of Josh telling him one day that Donna was stuck in the Oval all day as the President was on his 17th take of the radio address that day, and that she had decided to send the original audience home and bring in a new one like The Tonight Show. She told him she had sent them home with White House keychains. 

Mike had long suspected an unrequited love between his old college buddy and his assistant. There was just too much electricity and sexual tension surrounding the two of them that it was impossible not to notice. Mike had always had something of a crush on Donna, but always stopped short of actually asking her out. Whether Josh was able to date her or not, it just didn't seem right. Mike could never quite decipher whether or not they were a case of just sleep together and move past it, or if it went deeper. Sometimes he thought they should just go to bed and get over it; but there were moments when he saw one look at the other and he suspected something far deeper. 

"She also has a significant head laceration. The doctor had to put in stitches. The responding paramedics on the scene believe she may have hit her head on the dumpster as she fell." 

"You said she was cut?" Mike asked. "Are they superficial or do they look like blade wounds." 

"Oh, they seem like they're definitely from a knife." the nurse nodded. "She's got a slash down her right upper arm, though not a deep one, and it looks like the attacker carved something onto her hip." 

"Really?" Mike asked. "And what was that?" 

"The sight of a gun, it looks like." 

Mike stopped dead where he was walking. "You said sight of a gun?" The nurse nodded back. "The Zodiac killer's sign?" 

"Is that what it is?" 

"It was a calling card used by the Zodiac killer in the late 60s and copycats that came after him." Mike replied. "Were any of the injuries actually life threatening?" 

"The head injury could have been." the nurse replied. "But like I said, from where she was found, the paramedics seem to think that was accidental." 

"When you're assaulting someone, how do you accidentally give them a head injury?" Mike mumbled more to himself. 

"Here we are." They stopped outside a private room away from the hustle and bustle of the ER. "We have her back here for now, due to the nature of the case." 

Mike pushed opened the door to the room and approached the bed. The woman before him had been pretty badly beaten. He saw cuts on her face that had begun to scab over. But she was no Jane Doe. 

He was staring in shock down at the beaten and bloodied face of Donna Moss.


	2. Zodiac

Josh came barreling into the lobby of the White House. He stopped dead in his tracks when Donna wasn't there to greet him, a red flag instantly was raised. Donna was ALWAYS there to greet him in the morning. In fact, he racked his memory now for instances where she wasn't. Short of the two times she'd called in sick in the three years she'd worked for him, she always greeted him at the start of the day in the lobby. 

As he continued toward the operations bullpen, he checked his cell phone for messages. Maybe she had called to say she was running late and he missed it? But his phone read no new messages. When he got to her desk, she obviously had not been in yet. He moved to his office and checked his office voice mail. There were numerous messages as usual, but none from her. 

He walked slowly out to the bullpen. "Has anyone seen Donna this morning?" he asked in general. 

"No. I don't think she's in yet." an intern answered. "I've been here since 7 and I haven't seen her." 

Josh wandered back over to the security desk in the lobby and asked to see that morning's log. Donna hadn't signed in yet. Slowly moving back to the bullpen he thought back to the night before. He didn't remember her mentioning coming in late this morning. That was usually something that stuck out for him because it meant his whole morning routine would be screwed up. She didn't say anything like that. They had gone over the polling numbers with Joey, she had left around 2 a.m. When she stayed that late, she usually didn't come in until around 7 or so. 

This was extremely unlike her. 

He picked up his phone and dialed Margaret's extension. Procedure was, if you were going to call out sick, you call your immediate supervisor and then notify the Chief of Staff's office. Maybe she had just called over there and for whatever reason decided not to call him, though this was likewise extremely unlikely. 

"Leo McGarry's office." Margaret answered on the first ring. 

"Margaret, it's Josh." He said by way of greeting. 

"Good morning, Josh." 

"Have you heard from Donna this morning?" 

"No, I haven't." Margaret replied. "She isn't in yet? She's usually here by now." 

"Yeah. She hasn't come in yet and I haven't heard from her." 

"Well, that's weird." Margaret noted. The concern Josh felt starting in his gut was now spreading. "Why don't you try her cell and I'll try her house line?" 

"Thanks. Buzz me back." Josh hung up and dialed Donna's cell phone, which rang and was switched over to voice mail. 

"Josh?" Margaret's voice rang out through his office. 

"Did you get her?" he asked quickly. 

"No. It was her machine." 

"What the hell is going on?" He demanded to no one in particular. 

"I'm sure there's a plausible excuse." Margaret said. "It's Donna. She doesn't do things like this. Maybe her car just broke down or something and she's in a dead zone and can't make a call from her cell." 

"Yeah. Maybe that's it." Josh replied sounding unconvinced. "Let me know if you hear from her at all." He disconnected the call and dropped down into his chair. He realized that Margaret was probably just placating him. There were no dead zones between Donna's apartment and the White House. She wasn't answering her home line; she wasn't answering her cell; she wasn't in work yet; and he hadn't heard from her at all since she left last night. Something was definitely wrong. 

He stood up and grabbed his car keys and phone. He was going to drive over to her apartment to check on her. He had a key to get in. Maybe something was wrong and she couldn't call. He dialed Margaret's line from his cell phone then as he walked out of the building and let her know that he was going to go to her apartment and check on Donna and that he wouldn't be in staff. 

"We could just send an intern over." Margaret replied. She knew talking to Josh at the moment would be like talking to a brick wall, but she had to at least tell Leo she tried. "No. I'm already out of the building." he predictably refused. "Something's not right." 

"Call me when you know something." Margaret ordered. 

Josh disconnected the call and his phone immediately rang. He frowned when he saw that it was Mike Casper's cell. "Hey, Mike." he greeted. 

"Josh, come to GW. I'm here with Donna."


	3. Zodiac

"I'm putting an agent at her door." Mike advised the Emergency Department Manager while he waited for Josh to show up and stood outside Donna's door. "Very specific people will be given access to her." 

"Agent Casper," the woman began. "Our staff is incredibly discreet. This is the hospital the President comes to." 

"That's a different situation." Mike argued. "I'm not sure she's out of danger yet. Until I am, she'll have round the clock guards." 

"Agent Casper," the nurse manager sighed again. "Hospital policy --" 

"Have you ever met the White House Deputy Chief of Staff?" Mike interrupted. 

"No. I've only seen him on t.v." she said shaking her head. 

"Well, he's exactly like he is on t.v." Mike replied. "He's on his way here now. When he gets here, he's going to be loud, demanding, shocked, frustrating, inconsolable, probably belligerent, and the only person who can calm him down is currently unconscious in this room. You say the words 'hospital policy' to him, and you'll see an eruption the likes of which you've never witnessed before. When I say this woman means a lot to him, I'm grossly understating it. At some point today, I'm equally confident the White House senior staff will be descending on your ER, and you can guarantee the First Lady will likewise show up at some point. Ms. Moss works for the President of the United States, who is incredibly fond of her, she's been the victim of a crime, and things aren't going to be done exactly according to hospital policy. You'll be lucky if the President doesn't have this place crawling with secret service." 

Mike didn't have to continue. At that moment, they heard a bellow from the front of the ER. "Tell me where Donna Moss is." Mike heard Josh demand. Mike took a few steps forward until Josh came into view. 

"Josh!" he called. When Josh looked in Mike's direction, he waved him over. Josh was someone who normally walked fast. If you were talking to him while he was en route, it was a struggle to keep up. But Josh full on ran until he was standing right before Mike. 

"Where is she?" he demanded breathless. 

"She's here, Josh," Mike said gesturing to the room. "But wait --" Josh was by him and through the door before Mike could stop to remind him about her condition. He had told Josh over the phone what had happened, but he wanted to prepare him for what she was going to look like before he saw her. Josh, however, could think only of getting to her. 

He stopped once he was through the door when he saw her face. Her beautiful face that was covered in ugly purple bruises and small cuts. There was a large bandage on her upper arm, and more bruises running along the exposed skin of the other arm. Probably from being grabbed, Josh surmised as his stomach turned. He ran a hand down his face and took a deep breath, rooted to the floor. 

"Her vitals are good." Mike said quietly next to her. "Her CT scan just came back negative. She's lost a lot of blood from the head wound, but not so much where they think they'll need to transfuse her. They say she'll be all right, but they're just waiting for her to wake up." 

"Do you have any idea at all what happened?" Josh asked quietly, as he willed the tears to stay in his eyes. He walked slowly to her bedside and picked up her hand. 

"Only that it happened sometime in the early morning hours." 

"Probably when she was getting home." Josh surmised. "I asked her. I fucking asked her if she was okay getting home and she said yes." 

"Well, I don't think she would have expected something like this, Josh." Mike replied. "Tell me about last night, did she have a date or anything?" 

"No." Josh said shaking his head, but keeping his attention on her. "We'd been running a poll the last two days on the State of the Union and working late. We were going over numbers with Kenny and Joey --" 

"Who are Kenny and Joey?" 

"Joey Lucas is a pollster we use out of California. She's deaf; Kenny's her interpreter." Josh explained. "She was going over the numbers with me when Donna said she was leaving. I usually take her home when it's that late, but I wasn't done yet, and she was tired. She said she was all right getting home. Kenny and Joey left shortly after she did, and I didn't end up leaving until about an hour later." 

"I'm going to put a guard at her door." Mike said. 

"Why?" 

"This isn't the first attack like this." Mike replied. "After I talked to you, I called into the office. A similar attack happened a few months ago in May in Alexandria. The local police have been investigating. The DCPD called me because they saw her White House key ring, so they thought there was a chance she was a federal employee." 

"Do you think she was targeted?" Josh asked swallowing the large lump that was forming in his throat. 

"Because she worked in the White House? No." 

"But she was targeted?" 

"The other victim was also a woman about Donna's age and blonde. So yeah, I think she was targeted for that reason." 

"You can put a theory together that quickly." Josh smirked. 

"I'm good." Mike replied. "I've also worked for the FBI for a while. You get gut feelings." 

"Do me a favor, Mike." Josh said leaning over and brushing the hair away from her face. 

"What's that?" 

"Don't release her name to the press." Josh asked. 

"Josh." 

"She's listed as a Jane Doe with the DCPD; keep her that way for a little while. You know who she is. Not releasing her name isn't going to hinder your investigation. I don't want the whole town to know what happened yet." 

Mike smiled at his friend's devotion to the woman before him. Josh protected Donna. That's just the way it was. Everyone in the political scene knew it. He didn't want anyone bothering her. 

"I can't keep her name out indefinitely, but I will for now." Mike nodded. "I mean, when we catch this guy, there will be a trial. But we don't need to release her name right now." 

The door opened and a doctor entered. Josh stood up and shook his hand. 

"I'm Dr. Miller." 

"Josh Lyman." Josh replied. 

"Yes, I recognize you." the doctor nodded. "I understand you know our Jane Doe." 

"Her name is Donna Moss, she's my assistant, and I also hold her medical power of attorney." Josh rambled. 

"Well, if you want to go across the hall, I'll tell you about her condition." the doctor offered. 

"You can tell me right here." Josh said shaking his head. He didn't want to leave her side just yet; at the very least until she woke up. 

It didn't seem to make a difference to the doctor. "The bruising and lacerations you see on her face and other areas of her body are all superficial. They'll all be gone in a week to ten days. The laceration on her arm took 37 stitches to close up and was rather deep in some places, but likewise will heal just fine in a couple of weeks. It'll most certainly leave a scar. The head injury is another matter." 

"Head injury." Josh repeated. 

"The paramedics at the scene believe she hit her head on the dumpster she was found near, probably during a fall caused by the assailant. The injury does seem to match that theory. That took 84 stitches to close. The CT scan doesn't reveal any fractures of the skull or cranial bleeding, however, due to the amount of time she's been unconscious and the results of the scan it's likely she has a grade four concussion." 

"A concussion, that's not so bad though, right?" Josh asked. 

"Not normally, no. But a grade four concussion is one level below the worse you can get and will can likely cause permanent damage." 

Josh felt all the blood drain from his head and he sat down on the edge of Donna's bed. Permanent brain damage? Donna? He looked over at Donna in the bed where she remained unconscious, took a deep breath, and looked up at the doctor. 

"What does that mean exactly?" 

"Well, it's not as bad as it sounds. Symptoms would be dizziness, forgetfulness, depression, confusion, emotional instablility, amnesia, frequent headaches, sensitivity to loud noises or bright lights, vision problems, a change in personality --" 

"THIS is not as bad as it sounds?!" Josh exclaimed. 

"It could be none of those things, or a combination of them, and more than likely mild cases of each one." The doctor explained. 

"When would we see symptoms?" Josh asked. 

"Could be tomorrow; could be next week, month, a couple years from now." the doctor said. "The human brain is very complex, extremely unpredictable, and, if you'll excuse the pun, frequently a gray area." 

"What do you mean by a emotional instability and change in personality?" Josh continued to interrogate. 

"Outgoing people may tend to become more introverted; someone with what you call a thick skin, may be prone to get upset or agitated more easily. Mr. Lyman, it's worth repeating that none of these things may happen, if they do, they may only happen once or twice. She's been categorized this way because of the length of time she's been unconscious. The nursing staff has been able to rouse her a little bit to check her vital signs and level of brain activity. That's good." 

Josh sighed and looked back over at Donna. What had this monster done to her? Of course, he could have done much worse, but the possibility of her not being the same person she was last night was too much for him to wrap his mind around. 

"I'm going to give my orders to the nurses now to have her admitted." The doctor said. "I'd like to keep her a couple of days to monitor the concussion." Josh nodded his consent and the doctor left the room. 

"I'm going to head back to my office now, Josh." Mike said taking a step forward. "I'll give you a call this afternoon with an update. I'm going to go get into that other case and see what I can find out." 

"Thanks, Mike." Josh said rising up and turning to his old friend. "And thanks for calling me this morning." 

"Sure, I'll talk to you later." 

Mike left the room and Josh turned back to Donna. He sat back down and picked up her hand and waited.


	4. Zodiac

Josh sat in the quiet hospital room studying Donna's face. His heart broke in two every time he thought about what this guy had done to her. How could someone look at her and want to hurt her? She was the nicest, most compassionate person he knew. 

He thought back over the last 48 hours. Joey told him that Donna liked him and thought it started to show. Josh denied it, but it was a half-hearted denial. The truth was, his and Donna's growing attraction to each other was becoming more and more obvious, to them at least. He was just surprised that someone else had noticed it. 

They had always been flirty. But when had they become something more? If it wasn't for her, he probably would have fallen right over the edge last month. Donna was the one to see that he needed help and actually do something about it. Donna was the one that stayed with him over the summer and took care of him. 

She had spent the last 48 hours trying to convince him to ask out Joey Lucas. Josh really couldn't deny to her that he wasn't attracted to Joey, but the interest he'd once had in her, was no longer there. He liked Joey, a lot. But Joey lived in California and he lived in D.C. and his job only took him to California maybe once or twice a year, and wasn't conducive to a lot of vacation time to get him out there to maintain a long distance relationship. Joey was beautiful, intelligent, didn't take his crap, but logistically speaking, a relationship between them would never work. 

What Josh was more interested in the past 48 hours was Donna's obsession with fixing him up with Joey. He was just as wrapped up in that as he was in his quest to get the numbers he needed. Sam told him not to make anything of it, but Sam also said that completely without conviction. Sam also wasn't the slightest bit surprised at Josh's confession to getting jealous when Donna dated and trying to sabotage her dates. Sam truthfully looked like it wasn't news to him. Josh tried to tell Joey it wasn't true, too, but she didn't seem to buy it either. 

Sam told Josh last year his assistant Kathy was like a little sister to him, and used the words, "it's just like you and Donna." The problem was, since the day he'd met Donna, he had never, not once, thought of her as a sister. He had never looked on her like that. She was his assistant, she was his friend, and she was something else, but she was absolutely NOT like a sister to him. CJ was like a sister to him; even Zoe was almost like a sister to him. Not Donna; never Donna. But he didn't look at her and see just his assistant either. They were close, he'd never denied that. But he was never able to actual put a label on her...until someone asked if they were dating. Suddenly, she instantly became his assistant. 

He was amazed at how often people had asked him that over their first two years in office. Why did people instantly think that? Because they could be seen hanging out after work together? Because if he had a light day, they'd go to lunch together? Because they were friends? All this added up to them sleeping together? 

Because he was the hot shot young, brilliant, President's pitbull, and she was his beautiful, young, blonde, assistant, without a college degree. Nevermind she was ten times smarter than he was; nevermind she could probably do any number of jobs in the White House with her eyes closed; nevermind Senators, Congressmen and other politicos frequently melted at her feet when she smiled at them. Matt Skinner called her Josh's secret weapon. A meeting's not going Josh's way? Enter Donna with a sweetly delivered offer of coffee. Worked nearly every time. But God forbid that politico ask her dinner, they faced the wrath of the Deputy Chief of Staff. Why did it bug him so much? 

Because he liked her, too. Was it beginning to show, like Joey said it was for Donna? It must at some times because people thought they were "dating," and he assumed they used the term loosely. He briefly wondered what everyone thought of it. Nobody had said anything nasty to either one of them. He supposed because it was gossip so far and they'd never given anyone concrete proof. 

They'd probably get it now. He rushed to her bedside. That was probably going to spark some rumors, especially since he currently had no intention of leaving her bedside, just like she did over the summer and fall. 

The nurses had come in a couple of times since she'd been moved to a new room to take her vitals and rouse her out of her sleep. They continued to tell him that was a good sign; they could wake her up if they really needed to. Josh debated trying to do it himself. He really wanted to see her beautiful blue eyes on him right now. He was desperate to find out if she was still the same Donna she was yesterday; if she was going to banter with him and keep him in line, make him smile and inspire him to be better. The last nurse that had come in had changed the bandage on her hip and he nearly vomited when he'd seen the ugly carving this lunatic left, the sign of the Zodiac killer. Did this guy mean to kill her and just not succeed? Mike seemed to think that this guy may have struck at least once before. 

Josh was studying Donna's face so closely that he saw the moment her eyelids began to flutter. He quickly moved to the bed and sat gently at her side, calling her name softly and praying that she recognized him. 

When her eyes were fully opened, they focused right on him. She seemed disoriented at first, but then... 

"Josh?" 

'Yeah." he breathed out with relief. "It's me." 

She looked around him and took in her surroundings. He saw the alarm in her eyes begin to mount. 

"I'm in the hospital?" she asked. 

"Yeah, it's GW." he said softly picking up her hand and rubbing it gently. 

"What happened?" 

"I was hoping you could tell me." 

She studied his face for a few moments then looked away, thinking back to the previous night. She remembered leaving the White House late, parking her car, walking to her apartment, then... 

Tears filled her eyes as she remembered a searing pain in her head, then her face. She remembered screaming, clawing at somebody, then nothing more. She looked up at him, his gaze filled with sympathy and pain. The only thing she wanted more than anything in the world was to crawl into his arms and let him take the pain away. 

And so she did. 

Josh was a little surprised to say the least when she crawled from her spot in the bed and into his lap, but he wrapped his arms around her all the same, and held her as tightly as he dared, while she sobbed into his chest. He rocked her back and forth and stroked her hair gently. He'd lost track of the time as she stayed there and cried. Eventually, she'd calmed down and seemed content just to sit there, so he happily obliged her...lovingly obliged her. 

"How do you feel?" he asked her softly after the silence had dragged on for a while. 

"Like I've been hit by a truck." she whispered. She rubbed her head against his chest and hugged him tighter. 

There was a million questions he wanted to ask her, but he was afraid to overwhelm her. He was sure Mike would be coming back to get a detailed statement from her. For the moment, what mattered to him was she was awake and alive. 

"How do I look?" she asked him. 

"Honestly?" he sighed. 

"Do you lie to me often?" she shot back. 

"No." he replied. "You look like you've been hit by a truck." 

"Okay, don't sugar coat it then." 

"You told me not to." 

"Can I see?" 

"Later." he promised. "For now, just relax and take it easy. It's going to look the same tomorrow or a couple of hours from now. Don't rush yourself, please." 

"My head hurts." she said quietly. 

"You have a concussion." he replied. "You've got some stitches in your arm and head and bruises and cuts on your face." 

"I must look horrible." 

"Not to me you don't; never to me." 

"What time is it?" 

"A little after 1 in the afternoon. You've been sleeping all morning." 

"Shouldn't you be at work?" 

"Are you kidding?" 

"You had stuff to do today, didn't you?" 

"Donna, I have stuff to do every day. Leo farmed it out. I'll be here with you." 

"For how long?" 

"As long as I need to be." 

"Kay." she nodded into his chest. 

"Donna, I don't mind sitting like this," Josh said gently, "but why don't we get a little more comfortable?" 

"You'll stay?" she asked. He frowned. Didn't they just cover that? 

"Yeah." 

She straightened up a bit as he raised the head of the bed up a little more and settled against the pillow. He patted his lap and looked at her, and she curled back up against his chest and drifted back off to sleep. It wasn't until sometime later that he realized it had only been a few short months earlier that they were in this exact hospital, with her by his bedside. The idea began to make him anxious, but she shifted slightly and his mind was brought back to the reason he was here. 

He was here to take care of Donna. And as he held her in his arms, in a position that could only give people the wrong idea about them, he began to form a plan.


	5. Zodiac

Josh's head popped up the second he heard the hospital room door open and CJ lightly call his name. He had started to drift off to sleep with Donna in his arms. It was just so damn comfortable. He missed this over the last month or so. Until this moment, he hadn't realized just how much. He had frequently fallen asleep in her arms after a nightmare or an especially strenuous physical therapy session. She had such a calming and comforting presence, she was impossible to resist. He had tried at first, not willing to cross that professional line, quickly discovered that when he did, he felt better. 

But now CJ and who knew who she had with her, were about to see them. 

Too late. 

CJ, Sam, and Toby stood just inside the doorway and watched as he disentangled himself from Donna. Toby looked unreadable, as usual; Sam looked amused; and CJ was arching an interested brow at him. Josh walked over to them and ushered them out into the hallway. 

"Is she all right?" CJ asked as Josh closed the room door behind him. 

"Well, 'all right' I think is a relative term." Josh replied. "Put it this way, she could be a lot worse." 

"Well, how is she?" CJ prodded. CJ had grown pretty fond of Donna over the last few years. She had found something of a little sister in her, and a partner in crime. Donna was the only assistant that ever hung around with the senior staff outside of work. The other assistants had frequently been invited to after work gatherings, but rarely joined them. Donna did every time. 

"First, Ceej, I want to keep her name out of the press for now." Josh said. 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." CJ waved. "How is she, Josh?" 

"Stitches in her head and upper arm; a pretty nasty concussion; and her face --" Josh broke off for a minute. He dropped his head and squinted his eyes shut against the tears. It was a common reaction for him today when he thought about what that bastard did. His three friends took note at how much he was affected by this. "There's bruises all over her face. She's got a black eye...these little cuts all over....she just looks...I swear when they catch this guy..." 

CJ stepped forward and hugged him tightly. He returned the embrace, and CJ could feel the raw emotion emanating off him. She wished she could take some of the pain and stress away from him. She hated seeing him in pain. He was always so good at hiding his emotions, but last month it had gotten the better of him and she wanted to never see that again. 

"They'll get him, Josh." Sam said confidently, giving him a quick pat on the back. 

"What's with the guard?" Toby asked nodding his head in the direction of the agent that Mike had posted at the door. 

"Mike's not sure yet if she's out of danger." Josh sighed pulling away from CJ. "They'll be here until he is. He's just being cautious." Toby nodded and after a moment of studying the agent, turned his gaze back to Josh. 

A commotion in the hall caught their attention and they saw Abbey walking up to them with her secret service detail. 

"Joshua." she said giving him a quick kiss on the cheek that sort of surprised them all. "I talked to Dr. Miller. Is she awake?" 

"Not at the moment." 

"That's not uncommon." 

"So I've been told." 

"I'm going to go in." Abbey said moving by him. Josh wanted to stop her. He was pretty sure Donna didn't really want anyone seeing her right now, which is why he brought CJ, Sam, and Toby out into the hall. Hopefully she would consider the First Lady an exception. At least he was confident Abbey would go in there with her doctor's face on and show any kind of shock or pity if Donna was awake. 

"Can we see her?" CJ asked. 

"Not right now." Josh said. "I'm sure she wants to talk to you, but I don't think she's going to want anybody to see her right now. When she wakes up, I'll ask her. I didn't get the chance to before. She wasn't awake very long." 

"I'm really not sure how to ask..." CJ began. 

"Don't." Toby said quickly. 

"Yeah, but Toby..." CJ began. 

"CJ, if you don't ask Josh what's going on between him and Donna right now, he won't tell you, and then you won't have to worrying about standing up behind the podium and lying." Toby replied. Josh's eyebrows shot up as he took in the change of subject. 

"You don't think someone's going to ask me that eventually?" 

"Maybe." Toby nodded. "But when they do, you can answer honestly. The White House doesn't comment on the personal lives of its staff and you have no information for them in that area. It'll work for now." 

"Plus," Sam joined in. "Nobody knows she's here right now. We know because Josh told Leo and we came here. Josh said her name wasn't going to be released." 

CJ sighed and looked over at Josh. "There's nothing going on, CJ." Josh said quietly. "I mean, you probably are going to get the question because I want her to stay with me for a while, but there's nothing going on." 

"Stay with you?" CJ questioned. "Why?" 

"Well one, the concussion is pretty bad and might have some side effects, and I'm not all together comfortable with her being by herself until we know she's going to be okay. Secondly, this guy stole her purse, he's got everything about her. Mike doesn't know if he intended to kill her or not; we don't know if he's going to come back for her. By now, he'll know that she works at the White House. Quite frankly, I don't want her at her apartment. I'm going to try and convince her to give it up and find another one. That neighborhood sucks anyway. I have a guest room, CJ. She stayed there nearly the entire fall." 

"How long is she going to be out of work?" CJ asked. 

"At least this week." he replied. "Possibly next week, too. I'm going to see what she thinks on that. She might not want to go back until all the bruises are gone. That's up to her. She's accumulated so much vacation and sick time, she could probably take the whole month off, if she were so inclined." 

"What are we going to say is the reason she's not there?" CJ asked. "Donna's called in sick, what, twice maybe in three years. I don't think she's ever taken an actual vacation. She's gone back to Wisconsin for long weekends once or twice, but..." 

"Just say she's had a family emergency." Sam directed. 

"Yeah? Why's Josh out too?" CJ replied. All eyes turned back to Josh. "You all see my problem now? I'm not trying to be difficult here. I'm not even saying I disapprove of any of this. But it's the White House, people aren't actually stupid." 

"Yeah." Josh agreed. "Give me a little while with that. I'll call you tonight on that. Just say she called out sick, and make up whatever about me." 

"Gee, thanks for the help there." CJ deadpanned. 

"I know, CJ. I'm sorry." Josh sighed. "I just don't know what to do right now. She's just..." 

"I know, Josh." CJ smiled. "I'll figure something out and let you know what I say." 

"You'll call us after you talk to her?" Sam said. "We really want to talk to her." 

"Yeah." Josh nodded. "I'm sure she'll want to talk over the phone." 

"All right." CJ smiled lightly. "Be in touch." 

"Josh," Toby said. "Do you mind if I call Agent Casper and talk to him?" 

"No." Josh said sort of surprised by the request. Ever since the shooting, Toby and Donna were...different, and he couldn't quite figure out what it was. "Go ahead." 

CJ, Sam, and Toby left and Josh slid back into the room. Abbey was just putting Donna's chart back on the bed. Donna was still asleep. Abbey joined Josh by the door and spoke to him quietly. 

"Grade four concussion." Abbey noted. "Dr. Miller told you what to look for?" 

"Yeah." he nodded. "She asked me before if I was staying with her, after I already told her I was. That was a little disconcerting." 

"It's normal for the injury, Josh." Abbey assured. 

"I know. It's just that it's Donna. She doesn't forget things. She can keep a dozen things in her head at once and not one thing will fall through the cracks." 

"She's good at what she does." Abbey agreed. "Just give her some time to come around. It just happened." 

"Yeah." Josh agreed. 

"Give me a call later when she wakes up." Abbey directed. 

"Kay." 

Abbey left the room and Josh continued to stand by the door watching her sleep. CJ wanted to know what was going on. It was a good question. If only he had an answer.


	6. Zodiac

"Do you need anything?" Josh asked Donna as she crawled into the familiar bed in Josh's guest room. She shook her head and burrowed down into the pillows and under the covers. She smiled when she saw the stuffed donkey sitting on the pillow that he'd gotten for her in celebration of the night they won their first primary. And because he pissed her off a mere ten minutes after he'd given it to her, she named it Joshua, which at the time he was completely unamused by, but now found to be one of the many endearing things about her. 

He walked to the side of the bed and sat softly down. She rolled over to face him and he pushed the hair from her face. "I'm just going to be working in the living room if you want anything, kay?" She nodded her head in acknowledgment and he hated that she didn't say yes. She'd hardly said anything for days. Just like the doctor said might happen, she'd gotten very introverted. 

He smiled lightly down at her and then leaned down and kissed her forehead, a gesture she had done to him countless times over the past few months. Every single time, he'd found it comforting. It looked to him like it had the same effect on her because she was smiling lightly back when he pulled away. 

"I'll be right outside the door." he assured. 

He pulled the door closed, but left it open just a crack and flopped down onto the couch to spend time with the briefing memos that had been waiting for him. He had just pulled the first binder on his lap when his cell phone rang, and it showed Mike's number. 

"Give me good news, Mike." Josh said by way of greeting. 

"I'm afraid I have none." Mike sighed. Josh got up and moved to the kitchen so as not to disturb Donna. 

"What's going on?" 

"Well, Donna wasn't the only attack that night. There was an identical one over in Foggy Bottom as well. Our guy was busy. That one was also a woman, but not a blonde. So, I guess my original theory got shot out the window. This girl wasn't so lucky though." 

"She's dead?" Josh whispered. 

"Yes. And the first girl in Alexandria, she died, too." Mike replied. Josh closed his eyes and blew out a breath. "Out of the three, Donna's the only one that made it." 

"The other two," Josh said. "Did it look like he wanted to kill them?" 

"The first girl was stabbed; the second one was strangled." 

"Is there any connection between the three of them?" Josh asked swallowing back a lump. 

"There doesn't seem to be, though when I take Donna's statement, I'll run the names by her and see. The first girl was a teacher; and the other one was a librarian. Donna's the only federal employee." 

"And the only one he wasn't interested in killing." Josh murmured. 

"It seems like it." 

"And you're sure it's the same guy?" 

"The other two were carved just like Donna." Mike said quietly. He gave Josh a moment to regroup from that information. When Donna had seen the healing wound from the carving, she'd first, nearly fainted; and second, started sobbing. Josh thought she took it a lot better than he did when he saw it, since he nearly threw up. 

"Tell me about the Zodiac killer." Josh requested. 

"They never caught him, though they're pretty sure they knew who it was, but the evidence against him was all circumstantial. Their chief suspect was a man named Arthur Leigh Allen and he died a few years ago. He attacked in the San Francisco Bay area and none the victims were related in any way to the others. Sometimes it was just one person; sometimes two at a time, not all died. He was fond of writing letters to the newspapers talking about what he did, and he wrote in ciphers. In the late 80s a copycat showed up in New York. Each time he attacked, he'd leave a note that said, 'This is the Zodiac.' He promised 12 murders for each of the 12 signs. Neither so-called original Zodiacs ever carved anyone; they were only interested in murdering. The New York guy got caught. He's serving 236 years in prison." 

"Why the Zodiac killer, do you think? What's the obsession with that guy?" 

"He got away." Mike replied. "12 people and they never caught him. They got the Son of Sam; they got the New York City Zodiac killer; but not the first one. And he's notorious. Plus, he was completely unpredictable. He didn't use one method to kill and he didn't strike in the same place. No one was safe anywhere." 

"Why didn't he kill Donna?" Josh asked. 

"Do you care? She's alive." 

"Not really. I'm just curious." Josh replied. "Everything points to him just wanting to hurt her, but not kill her. If he killed the other two, I just don't understand why Donna." 

"We may never understand that." Mike sighed. "Why Donna anyway? Why'd he pick her to commit any act of violence? It could just be the fact that not all the Zodiac's victims died." 

"Yeah. Thanks for giving me more to think about there, Mike." Josh replied. 

"I think she's out of danger, Josh, but I'll keep her under surveillance for a little while to be sure." 

"Thanks, Mike. I appreciate it." 

Josh disconnected the call and sat back on the couch, he began replaying the conversation in his head when he saw Donna appear from the bedroom before him with the comforter wrapped around her Joshua the Donkey poking out the top. She stared down at him for a moment. Josh opened up his arms to her and she curled up against him. He was dying to ask her what the hell was going on with them; why was it that any time something was wrong, they gravitated to each other; why was it that the other's presence was so comforting and healing. Why now? Why not after they were out of office when it wasn't so complicated or before they took office when she could have quietly been assigned to a different department? 

"What'd Mike say?" 

"Nothing good." 

"But what'd he say?" 

"Don't think about it now." 

"It's all I CAN think about." 

"Here." He directed pulling a large binder off the coffee table and dropping it in her lap. "Think about the highways bill. Make yourself useful." 

She sat up and smiled at the small sense of normalcy they just had there. 

"No index cards." she grinned tossing it back at him. 

"Your tote bag's over there by the door." Josh said nodding in its direction. "You're going to tell me that there are no index cards in it?" She pouted at him, but got up and retrieved the package of colored index cards from her bag all the same. 

"Plain white please." he replied without looking up. "I don't want to look like a pansy ass." 

"And you think white index cards are going help you?" 

"You crack me up." 

She dropped back down onto the couch and put her head on his shoulder as she pulled the binder back into her lap and settled herself for hours of boring reading. "What's this one again?" 

Josh paused for a moment before replying, "Highways bill." He hated that she was doing that. He wasn't annoyed by actually having to remind her of something, so much as that he never had to do it before and now doing it was actually a cause of concern. He was going to have to be more diligent about that when she came back to work. If it was going to be a thing with her then he'd just have to cover for her. 

They read in silence for an hour or so before Donna sat up and tossed the binder onto the floor with a frustrated sigh. 

"What's wrong?" Josh asked. 

"That's got to be the most boring thing I've ever read." 

"I completely agree. Why do you think I gave it to you instead of keeping it?" 

"I don't want to read any more of it." 

"Okay." he said quickly. "Want me to order something for dinner?" 

She nodded to him. "Pizza?" 

"Whatever you want." 

"Pizza." she said again. 

"Kay." 

"Unless you need me to." she replied. Josh arched a brow at her while he dialed their favorite pizzeria. 

"Unless I need you to what?" 

"Do you need me to keep reading and do the index cards?" she asked. "Is it going to make you behind if I don't?" 

"Umm..." 

"I'll do it if you need me to. Do you need me to?" 

"Yes?" he asked confused. He wasn't keeping up. Did she want to do it or not? It wasn't that big of a deal to him. He thought it was boring, too, but he could read it if she didn't want to. It was his job. He just let her do some because she liked it and she was really thorough when she briefed him. 

"All right." she nodded leaning over and picking it back up. "Get me the chicken lo mein." 

"We were ordering pizza." 

"Oh yeah. I want half Hawiian." 

"Kay." 

"Maybe anchovies, too." 

"On the Hawaiian side? Donna, that's disgusting." 

"Then get half of what you want." 

"Oh, I will." he assured. He placed the order for delivery and she settled back against him. She seemed perfectly content to read the briefing book again, while Josh set about trying to figure out exactly how he was going to keep up with her.


	7. Zodiac

"Mi amore." CJ greeted entering Josh's office through their connecting door. 

"Hey, Ceej." 

"Can I ask why you're installing mood lighting in the bullpen?" 

"Sure." Josh smirked. 

"Jackass." 

"A side effect of Donna's head injury could be sensitivity to bright lights. The bullpen is bright. Maintenance is taking one bulb out of each of the lights above her cubicle. I didn't want her to walk back in here tomorrow and get --" 

"Blinded by the lights?" CJ smiled. 

"Freaked out." Josh finished ignoring her jab. 

"I swear to God, mi amore, you really are probably the sweetest guy on the planet." 

"Please, oh please, do not spread that around." 

"Seriously." 

"She's got to work out there, CJ; she needs to be able to concentrate." He was trying for misdirection, but CJ just kept smiling bigger and bigger. 

"What else have you done?" she smiled. 

"Nothing." 

"What else have you done?" 

"Nothing." 

"What else have you done?" 

"Turned down the volume on all the t.v.s out there." 

"You're a tough egg to crack, Josh Lyman." 

"Shut up." 

"Did you find her a new apartment yet?" 

"It's been two weeks. I've been more concerned with her recovery." 

"Translation?" 

"She's arguing with me." he sighed. "She doesn't want to have to move." 

"She'll come around." CJ said. "It's actually not a bad idea." 

"Or she can just live with me forever." Josh mumbled staring down at his tie. 

"I knew it!" CJ exclaimed pointing a finger at him. 

"Nothing's going on." Josh sighed. 

"But you want it to." 

"But it's not." 

"Does she want it to, too?" 

"I think so." 

"I see." 

"Do you? Because I think I'm starting to get lost here." 

"How much time do you think?" 

"Time for what?" 

"Until you make a move." 

"CJ, she's recovering from what hasn't been ruled out as an attempted murder. There is a murderer on the loose." Josh replied. "You're asking me for a time line of when I'm going to kiss her?" 

"So you are planning on kissing her?" CJ surmised. 

"You've overstayed your welcome." 

"Come on." 

"You've long outlasted your usefulness to me in this present conversation. In fact, what the hell did you want anyway?" 

"This." 

"To bug the shit out of me?" 

"Yeah, pretty much." 

"Be gone." he ordered point to their adjoining doors. CJ huffed dramatically and disappeared from his office. 

*****************************

"Josh." Donna whispered. 

"Sshh." 

"Josh." 

"What, Donna?" 

"I forgot you told me it was movie night." 

"I know. But I reminded you, and here we are, and you better shut up or people are going to yell at you." 

The truth was, he'd take on anyone in the room who shushed her. The President wasn't in here at the moment, so he felt pretty confident no one would mess with him. She had barely said a word all day, though he saw her in her cubicle look up at the ceiling and smile, so he knew his lighting secret was discovered and apparently appreciated. But he hated the fact that the bantering moments, hell, the moments she spoke at all, were few and far between. When she spoke, she was herself, but the quietness made her...not herself. It was killing him slowly. He hoped that it went away. She was chatty. She was always chatty. And he pretended that it annoyed the shit out of him, but it didn't. She was always there; and she was always talking to him, and asking him questions, and there to remind him of things, and now, she didn't do that. 

"Am I losing my mind?" 

"No, of course not. You've only been back a few days, it's been overwhelming. It just slipped your mind. It's no big deal." 

She dropped her head onto his shoulder and watched the movie. He nudged her slightly to get her attention. "Everyone's going to the Hawk and Dove after the movie. Wanna go?" 

"Not really." she replied still watching the screen. 

"Kay." He tried to make it sound like it was no big deal, but he really wanted her to go. She had turned down every offer to go out with the group since she came back to work. When she was in his office and it was more than just the two of them, she got very quiet and usually came up with an excuse to leave, only returning when it was just him. He didn't think it was the others specifically because he'd seen her talk with them individually, and she seemed okay. But when everyone was together, she found a reason not to be around. 

"You go." 

"No, not without you." 

"Go. I'll just go home." 

He paused and smiled slightly. Home was still his place. He liked to hear her refer to it that way. He had to stop and remind himself that there was no reason why he should be obligated to go home if she didn't want to go out. They weren't actually a couple. But they were acting like it. Was that bad? He couldn't decide. 

"Nah. I'll just go with you. I'm kind of tired anyway." 

"Josh..." she began. 

"It's not as fun without you any way." he said quietly, cutting her off. She smiled at him, rested her head back on his shoulder and turned back to the screen. When the lights came back up, she was sound asleep. Josh watched as the President and Ellie got up and began to walk at, the President hounding Ellie the whole way up to where Josh and Donna were near the door. 

Shit. In about two seconds, the President was about to see Donna sleeping on him. This might not be so good. 

Aannnd there it was. The President paused next to them looking down, one hand on Ellie's shoulder. "You remember what I said to you before?" 

"Which thing specifically?" Josh gulped. 

"The reasons men do things?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"Good. You'd do well to remember it. Good night, Josh." the President replied. "Come, Eleanor. Come explained to your addle-minded old man the exact difference between podiatry and pediatrics." 

"Dad." Ellie groaned, but allowing her father to lead her out of the theater with one arm slung around her shoulder all the same. 

"What? I thought oncology was babies!" The President laughed. 

"You did not, Dad." 

Josh smiled as he listened to the argument fade away. Everyone else was filing out of the theater, throwing them curious looks as they went by. Josh waited until the room was empty before rousing Donna. 

"Mmm? What?" she asked sleepily looking around the empty, lighted room. 

"Movie's over; let's go home." 

"Kay. Let's go home."


	8. Zodiac

"You think Sam's still pissed at me?" Donna asked when they'd finally made it back from the Hawk and Dove. She was getting changed in her room, and she could only imagine he was doing the same. She had an overwhelming urge to go and check. 

"For what?" 

"For Stephanie." She pulled her t-shirt over her head and walked out toward his room, tying her hair up as she went. He met her just outside his bedroom door, likewise dressed for bed. 

"No. I don't think he was pissed before." Josh shook his head, walking towards the living room. "I on the other hand almost got killed again today. This is what happens when you travel with Toby." 

"You need to get over it." she groaned grabbing a pillow off the couch and dropping down onto it. He sat down next to her and studied her for a minute. When she announced she was going out tonight, he about turned a cartwheel. And she actually seemed comfortable out with everyone at the bar. They'd only stayed a little over an hour because she seemed to be getting tired, but they'd gone out and that was all that mattered to him. 

"Mike's pissed as hell at him though." Josh replied. 

"Well, I think Mike's a little edgy in general lately." Donna replied. 

"You've talked to him?" Josh asked instantly on alert. 

"Of course I have." Donna nodded. "One, he's working on my case; two, he was kind of pissed off about the Sam thing." 

"He calmed down a bit though after he found out Stephanie was a friend of yours." Josh said looking at her questioningly. 

"I may have mentioned that to him this morning." she said airly. 

"How many men did you play today?" Josh smiled. 

"Including you?" 

"Me?! When did you play me?" 

"I play you every day." she laughed as she stretched out across him on the couch. 

"Like a cheap violin." he agreed. 

She sat up again and looked at him. "Thank you though." she said softly. 

"Sam did all the work." 

"No." she said. "I mean, thank you for everything." 

"Oh." 

"You've been wonderful, and --" 

"Don't." 

"Don't what?" 

"Don't with the wonderful." 

"You are." 

"Donna, eventually, we're going to have to actually talk here." Josh sighed. 

"Yeah." she said softly. 

"It's not like people haven't taken notice of the current living arrangements. And quite frankly, I don't care about that, but I wouldn't have it any other way." Josh said. "And I mean that. I wouldn't have you live anywhere else." 

"You do have a point, Josh." Donna sighed. "It's probably not a good idea for me to go back to my place." 

"I mean at all." Josh said shaking his head. "I mean, I don't even want you to move out now. I didn't want you to leave in November. I like you living here." 

"You like it because I know how to program the coffee maker and it turns on right before you get up in the morning." she said rolling her eyes. 

"That's not why." he said softly looking down. When he looked back up at her, she was looking at him expectantly. "Okay, that's not ONLY why." 

"That's more like it." 

"You fit here, Donna; you fit with me." 

She yawned and stretched in a most unladylike way and stood up. "Let's talk about this when we're not so tired. Or, at least one of us isn't so tired." 

Josh sighed and looked up at her. She was avoiding the conversation and he wondered why. 

They both made their separate ways to their bedrooms. But Josh just laid there and stared at the ceiling most of the night. Why was she pushing away? Sooner or later, she absolutely could not walk away from the conversation. He was just about to give up and force himself to sleep when he heard a soft "Josh?" appear from the side of the bed. He rolled over and she was looking down at him. 

"Are you all right?" he asked sitting up quickly. She nodded down to him and then crawled under the covers next to him. He was surprised and not a little confused by this change in her. She burrowed down under the covers and snuggled into the pillow, as he looked down at her propped up on his elbow. 

"If I'm not going to change my current living arrangements, I'd like to change my current sleeping arrangements." she announced with a soft smile. 

"Yeah?" 

"Uh-huh." 

"Are you sure? You didn't seem so sure before." 

"I shouldn't have bailed on the conversation like that. I wasn't expecting it and I think I needed to regroup." 

"Donna, I'm not sure I can have you sleeping in this bed and not be kissing you, you know, a lot." 

"Joshua, I'm not sure I can sleep in this bed and not have you kissing me a lot. I'm tired of sleeping with stuffed Joshua, I want the real one." 

"People will tell you there's not much difference." he smirked, leaning down lower towards her. 

"I think I'd like to explore the possibility that they're wrong." she whispered pulling by his shirt the rest of the way. 

The kiss was slow and exploratory. Neither was sure which direction their first kiss should go. It was definitely a kiss of promise, and of a decision finally made and long in coming. It was a kiss of questioning where they went from there, while already knowing the answer. Donna snaked her hand under his t-shirt and when she came lightly in contact with the still sensitive bullet wound, he hissed, surprised at the sensation it caused. 

"Are you all right?" she asked breaking away. He nodded, but she was unconvinced. "Are you sure?" 

"Donnatella, I've never been more okay in my life." 

*****************************

"So, someone had quite the save today." Josh smiled at Donna from his computer. She dropped down into a visitor chair and adjusted the volume on his office t.v. a little louder to watch the senate proceedings. 

"All I did was prove to you that I actually listen to your addled ramblings." she smirked back reaching for the beer he was drinking. 

"Donna, you remembered Senate rules." Josh replied. "You've been so concerned about forgetting things, and tonight you swept in and remembered something that was of so much importance, you stopped a Senate filibuster and saved the day. You caught the senator's autistic grandkid. The rest of us were just pissed at being stuck here." 

"Are you still emailing your mom?" she smiled. 

"Yeah." 

"Are you telling her about it?" 

"You bet your ass I am." he smiled back. "The pupil is exceeding the teacher." 

"You see, this is exactly why I didn't want you to find out about it." Donna said rolling her eyes. "Somehow it comes back to you." 

"Nope, this one is all you." he smiled. 

CJ poked her head through the door. "I'm outta here." she announced. "I think I've had enough of today." 

"Have fun in Ohio." Josh said. 

"Watch out for black cats crossing in front of you." Donna chimed. 

"Do you really think its cursed?" CJ hedged again. "I mean, that's just superstition, right?" Donna shrugged in return. 

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Josh demanded. 

"CJ's got the ancient curse of Bast on her." Donna said. 

"I broke a stupid cat! It should never have been given to me in the first place." she said hotly. "I blame the President. He's the one that sticks all this random crap in my hands when we travel." 

"You know what?" Josh said. "I don't even want to know what the hell you two are talking about. CJ, have fun in Ohio; Donna, let's get the hell out of here, this day has been endless." 

"You're telling me." she smiled.


	9. Zodiac

"When does Joey get here?" Toby asked Josh as they left Leo's office. 

"Six o'clock." 

"We do this carefully." 

"No kidding." 

"You trust this person?" 

"I gotta trust somebody right now." 

"Good, 'cause I don't trust anybody right now." Toby turned and walked away from Josh, as he turned and walked into the bullpen. He walked into his office and found Donna sitting in a visitor's chair staring down at a piece of paper she was holding. 

"What's up?" he asked. When she didn't answer he looked over at her. "Donna, whatcha got there?" 

"It's a fax from NASA. There's a Chinese satellite falling out of orbit. It's suppose to hit the Earth at an unspecified place and time." she said monotoned. 

"Give the fax to the press office." 

"Josh, I..." she began. 

"We don't have to run for cover." Josh smiled. "Something falls from the sky every ten days. We get that fax once a week." 

He frowned when she looked back up at him with tears in her eyes. She nodded but looked down at the fax. Why the hell was she getting so upset about this? This literally happened all the time. No one had ever been hit by one of these things before. He took the fax out of her hand and looked down at it. His heart dropped down into his stomach. 

The satellite's name was Zodiac. Well, what the hell were the chances of that? He pushed the door shut, then moved to squat down in front of her. 

"Are you all right?" he asked. 

"Yeah." she nodded. "I just wasn't expecting that, you know? Ed and Larry had the fax, and they were laughing about it, and they gave it to me to give to CJ..." 

Josh wished he could go fire Ed and Larry for their insensitivity, but he had to remind himself that they didn't know what happened to her. The only people who knew what happened to her were Margaret, the senior staff, and the President and First Lady. No one else knew. Ed and Larry would have had no idea seeing something as benign as that would have freaked her out. 

"Are you sure?" he asked again. 

"Yeah." she smiled. "Any way, this giant thing is falling to Earth and they're watching it on radar. There's not something we do about that?" 

"Like what?" he laughed. 

"I don't know sound the alarm?" 

"Sound the alarm?" 

"There is no alarm." 

"There's really not." 

"That's disappointing. I thought we had that air raid horn." 

"Just like hiding under a desk wasn't going to save anyone from a bombing, it's not going to save anyone from a falling satellite either." Josh replied. 

"I see Deputy Downer is back." Donna smiled. 

"He'll probably be appearing all week." Josh sighed as he thought of having to meet with Joey later and the fact that not only did Donna not know about that meeting, but she also didn't know the reason behind the meeting, and he didn't like that. 

"Something's going on?" she asked picking up on his change of mood. 

"You could say that." 

"Anything I can help you with?" she offered. 

"Not at the moment." he replied dejectedly. "Soon though." 

"You'll tell me when you can." she nodded. 

"Yeah. Listen, I have to duck out of here around 5:30, I'll be gone for about two hours. Just hang out here and I'll come back and get you." he instructed. It always made him feel uneasy when she was out and about by herself. The new Zodiac killer hadn't struck in weeks, and Josh was paranoid that he'd start hunting Donna again. 

"You've put something on the schedule without telling me?" she chided him. "You know how that makes me crazy, Joshua." 

"I'm asserting my independence." he smirked. 

"You're not allowed to do that." 

"It was Leo's idea." Josh backpedaled. 

"This is about your mysterious crappy mood?" 

"Yeah." 

"Kay. I'll wait for you here." 

When Josh returned to the White House to pick Donna up, he bumped into Toby on his way in. 

"Joey's on board?" Toby asked. 

"Yeah, she's in." Josh nodded. 

"How'd it go?" 

"Fine. She was concerned about the President, which was nice to hear. It's a much better reaction than I expected; it was kind of encouraging. It was tough talking at times though because her normal interpreter was on vacation and I didn't let the sub hang around." 

"Good thinking. CJ's done with Babish." 

"Is she pissed?" 

"That's one way to put it. Leo just pulled Sam in." 

"Shit." 

"Couldn't have said it better myself." 

************************ 

The next morning found Josh and Donna unmotivated to get out of bed. It was a Saturday and Senior Staff wasn't until 10. 

"What the hell?" he asked as he rolled over onto something under the covers. He reached in between them and pulled out Joshua the Donkey. "Donna!" 

"Sorry." she giggled. "I can't help it! I'm used to sleeping with him!" 

"You've slept with this thing for three years?" he replied. 

"Yeah." she confessed sheepishly. She laughed as she watched Josh squish the donkey between this hands. 

"I'm not near as squishy as this guy is though." he noted. 

"No!" she laughed. "You're much more firm than that." 

"I am." 

"I've got no complaints." 

"Good. I'd hate to think the magic's gone already." 

"You're afraid you've fizzled out already? I've loved you, now I'm going to leave you?" 

"Something like that." he shrugged. 

She was about to tell him he was crazy, but the phone rang, interrupting their argument. Josh looked at the clock and sighed. 8 o'clock on a Saturday morning. There was only one person this could be. 

"Hello." 

"Josh, it's Mike." Came Mike's rushed voice on the other end of the phone. 

Or not. 

"Hi Mike." Josh replied sitting up. "What's up?" 

"I wanted to get to you guys before you turned on the news this morning." Mike continued. 

Josh shut his eyes and dropped his chin to his chest. "You're kidding me right?" 

 

"Four women last night." 

"Four!" Josh exclaimed. He rose from the bed and walked into the living room, but Donna followed him in. 

"One in Falls Church; one in McLean; one in Bethesda; one in Silver Springs." Mike supplied. 

"That's quite an area." Josh said. "He's moved over into Maryland." 

"Yeah, he seems to be circling the DC area." 

"But Donna wasn't the surrounding area, and neither was the Foggy Bottom person." Josh said. 

"No. But I've got something of a theory on that now, myself. But since I said the last one out loud and it turned out to be wrong, I thought I'd keep this one to myself for a bit longer." Mike quipped. 

"Are they dead?" Donna asked next to Josh. 

"Donna wants to know if they were all killed." Josh said closing his eyes. 

"Yeah." Mike replied. "There were no survivors." 

Donna knew the answer the second he opened his eyes and looked at her. She slowly sat down on the couch to absorb that new information. 

"So he's up to seven now." Josh replied. "What do you suppose might have set him off?" 

"I have no idea, but it's all over the news this morning. So I just wanted to warn you." 

"Thanks, Mike. I'll give you a call later." 

Josh disconnected the call and looked down at Donna. Four more women last night that weren't as lucky as she was. He sat down next to her, and she silently wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her tightly in return and stayed like that until it was time to get ready for work.


	10. Zodiac

"So, two more last night?" Toby asked Josh as they walked through the White House late at night heading downstairs. 

"Yeah." Josh sighed. 

"So, what's he up to now? Nine?" Toby asked. 

"Yeah." 

"How's Donna taking it?" 

"She says she's all right, but..." 

"But?" 

"Ever since the other day when Mike told us about the four, she's been quiet, skittish, she's having trouble sleeping." 

"Nightmares?" 

"No. It's just like she's afraid to go to sleep; she's afraid to let her guard down, I guess. She hardly eats." 

"Does that mean you hardly eat?" Toby smirked. 

"No." Josh laughed. "Every time I turn around, she's sticking something to eat in my hand. She knows something's up right now and that I'm functioning on more cylinders than I have." 

"You haven't told her yet?" Toby asked surprised. 

"Of course not." 

"I just assumed..." 

"That just because I'm sleeping with her, I share things with her that are above her clearance level?"" Josh replied annoyed. 

"No." Toby said. "Everyone's going to be finding out. You said she knows something's up. I know you know what not to tell her. I didn't think this was one of those things." 

"Have you told Ginger?" 

"Ginger's not Donna." Toby said as they stopped outside the basement room. "Sagittarius." Toby said to the secret service agent at the door. 

"I really wish we'd change this password." Josh said sounding almost helpless as they entered the room. 

"It wasn't MY idea to name it that. If you post a secret service agent at a door, you take the code word they give you." 

They walked down the couple of steps to where Joey and Kenny were already seated and joining them. "Every time I hear it, I want to punch something." 

"Joey, do you have good news for us?" Toby greeted. 

"No." she said simply. 

"Well, that was worth not going home for." Josh sighed. He sat back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling, as if he could see through the floors to where Donna was waiting in his office. He really should tell her. He'd just been preoccupied with the tobacco thing, and the Zodiac thing that he didn't WANT to think about the M.S. thing. If he told her, he would be adding more pain where there was already too much pain. 

He sighed and dropped his head onto his arms on the table while they waited for everyone else to arrive. 

*************************** 

"Do you need this?" Donna asked picking up a file in Josh's office. 

"I didn't even see you there." Josh replied popping his head up. 

"I haven't seen you all day." 

"I've been with, you know, tobacco." 

"Do you need this?" she asked again. 

"Yeah." 

"Josh, the President wants another meeting tonight in the Residence around nine o'clock." 

He paused for a second. Great, he was going to have to lie to her now. This is what this crap has brought him to. "Oh, I'll tell you what that is--that's the ... Blue Ribbon Commission on Reform. Let me tell you, I'm going to be collecting benefits, or, you know, not, by the time we get this Blue Ribbon thing up." 

"Josh ..." 

"Yeah?" 

"Um ... I'm trying ... see, this is why I'll never have a career as a --" 

"Donna, what--" 

"Sagittarius." she said quickly. 

"You all right?" he whispered after a long pause. 

" Yeah." she nodded. "There's an empty office next to the conference room downstairs. I've moved two couches in, and there's some pillows and blankets." 

"Who told you?" he interrupted. 

"Toby." 

"I really wanted to tell you." he said quickly. He stood up and moved to the other side of the desk and hugged her. "I didn't think we could yet." 

"It's okay." she nodded. "Stuff like this happens." 

"I wanted to be with you when you learned the...I hate the fucking code word." he huffed. 

"Well, when you ask for a secret service guard, you take the code name they gave you." 

"That's what Toby said." 

"Yeah." he replied. "Want me to take you home before I have to be in the residence? I'll be up there a while." 

"I'll be all right." she assured. 

"No. I'll take you home and come back. I'll be freaked out the whole time if you leave by yourself." 

"Okay." she said smiling half-heartedly. He kissed her on the forehead and squeezed her hand as she turned and walked away from him. 

***************************** 

When Josh walked into the dark apartment much later, he found Donna sleeping on the couch. He smiled as he saw her curled up under a blanket, Joshua the Donkey's head popping out. Unfortunately, what he had to tell her was not good news. 

"Donna." he said softly nudging her shoulder to wake her up. He called her name again as she begun to stir. 

"What time is it?" she asked when she was able to focus on him. 

"About eleven." 

"You're not as late as you thought." 

"No." he sighed. "Listen, Donna, something really bad happened tonight." She sat up and looked at him in confusion as he moved to his knees in front of her. "Mrs. Landingham was killed tonight." 

Her eyes widened in horror. "Oh my God!" She breathed. "She wasn't...he didn't..." 

"No!" Josh said immediately when he realized what she was asking. "God no! She had gone to pick up her new car and she was coming back to the White House, and a drunk driver hit her at 18th and Potomac. She was killed instantly." 

Silent tears began to fall down her cheeks, and Josh pulled her into a hug. God, when did the madness stop! She wondered. Why were all these horrible things happening now? Mrs. Landingham? Mrs. Landingham was like everyone's mother. She was a mentor to Donna at the moment professionally. She had lost both her boys in VietNam, and never missed a day of work; never took a sick day; never took a personal day. Came in every day and did her job; whether she was sick, or tired, or whatever. In at 7 a.m. and home whenever the President was finished for the day; her loyalty never wavering in the man she served; the man she watched grow up. 

"Sorry." she said quietly pulling away from his iron grip. 

"Don't be." he said quietly. 

"Josh?" she asked. 

"Yeah, baby?" 

"Can we..." she sighed and looked up at him through tear-filled eyes. "Will you please just take me to bed." 

He smiled lightly at her and leaned in and kissed her before scooping her up, she dropped her head onto his shoulder and he carried her into the bedroom. 

*********************

Donna woke before Josh the next morning. She moved into the kitchen and breathed deeply the smell of a fresh pot of coffee. She switched on the kitchen television, pulled down two mugs, and picked up the coffee pot to pour herself a cup. She froze when she heard the story the morning anchor was reporting on. 

"...the bodies of the victims were found in Dupont Park and on the campus of Georgetown University, bringing the Zodiac killer's victims to a staggering 11. All the victims have been women..." 

She turned towards the television as the coffee pot slipped from her hand and crashed to the floor. 

"Donna!" Josh yelled from the bedroom. He came running to the kitchen but stopped when he saw her standing in the middle of the mess. He followed her gaze to the television. 

"...like the nine who came before them, both women were gruesomely carved with the killer's symbol, a copycat of the one which was used by the original Zodiac killer in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1960s." 

"Shit." Josh said quietly. He looked over at Donna. Her eyes widened in surprise, she clamped one hand over her mouth and one across her stomach. Heedless of the broken glass beneath her feet, she tore off to the bathroom where she dropped to her knees and vomited in the toilet. Josh was right behind her, pulling her hair away from her face and rubbing her back. Two more people killed over night; four in two days. Why couldn't they catch this guy? They hadn't found any pattern? 

When she pulled herself together, he gave her a glass of water to rinse with, then he turned on the tub water. 

"Stick your feet under the water a second. I want to make sure you didn't cut them on the glass."he ordered. She sat on the edge of the tub and wordlessly did as he directed. After a minute he pulled them into his lap one by one and looked for any cuts. They both seemed to be fine. "Why don't you go back to bed and lay down for a few minutes? I'll go clean up the kitchen." 

"I don't want to make us late." she whispered. 

"We've got some time." he assured. He'd call Leo, tell him what happened and that he'd be late for staff. After last night, he didn't think it would be a big deal. He stood up, but she lightly tugged him back down. "What is it?" 

"I don't think I'd be able to handle this without you." she smiled quietly. "You've been amazing. I love you so much." 

"I love you, too." he smiled back. "I'll do anything for you, you know that." 

She leaned in and kissed him. The kiss quickly turned into something more involved, and soon, the mess in the kitchen or extra rest was the furthest thing from their minds.


	11. Zodiac

"The Undersecretary for Global Affairs and Regina Pierce are gonna sit with our legal advisor at the UN and look at some alternative language." Josh said. 

"I heard." Amy confessed. 

"So." 

"Indeed." 

"So, what the hell am I doing here?" Josh asked. 

"We're discussing it." Amy replied smiling. 

"How's making prostitution illegal not suppressing women's rights?" Josh asked ignoring that predator's look in her eyes. 

"How is making heroin use illegal not suppressing a heroin user's rights?" she countered. 

"It is, but heroin's bad for you." 

"So's being a prostitute." 

"How am I not supposed to call you a hypocrite when you say that the government shouldn't tell women what to do with their bodies." 

"Exercise some self-control, I guess." 

"What the hell am I doing here, Amy?" Josh demanded again. "We went through this on the phone." 

"Prostitution is about the subjugation of women by men for profit." 

"But the profit goes to the women." he added. 

"In some cases. But I know of no little girl, and neither do you, who says "I wanna be a prostitute when I grow up." They do it 'cause they're forced to out of economic circumstances. And dire economic need is a form of coercion." 

"But the guy who breaks into my apartment and steals my stereo does it for the same reason." 

"And he's going to jail. 

"Yeah, because he broke into my apartment and stole my stereo, and nobody wants that to happen to them. But you can't say that about the other thing." He looked at her across her desk. She was aggravating the hell out of him and he really wasn't interested in this fight anymore. They'd already been over this on the phone, then she called and asked him to meet her here. What was going on here? 

"Are you dating Joey Lucas?" she asked crossing her legs. 

"No." 

"Are you dating your assistant?" she asked. 

"Dating?" Josh smiled cocking his head to one side. "I live with her." 

"You're living together?" Amy asked surprised. 

"Yeah." 

"Gee, J, that's..." she began. She obviously wasn't expecting that. "I thought that was a rumor." 

"It's not." he said. "And that's what?" 

"Do you know how bad that looks?" Amy asked. "You're living with your secretary." 

"First of all, Donna's my assistant, not my secretary. I have a secretary and she's like 60. And I'm not living with 'my assistant,' I'm living with the woman I love. Someone's got a problem with that, I don't really care. We've been living together for the better part of the year. No one's cared." 

"I heard you guys weren't together." 

"Well, we are very much together. And since you're dating John Tandy, what does it matter to you who I'm with anyway?" he countered. 

"How do you know I'm dating John?" she asked. 

"Because I know everything that goes on in this town." he replied. 

"You should really think about your image there, J." Amy advised. 

"I don't give a shit about my image." he said as he fished his vibrating cell phone out of his pocket. He saw Mike's cell phone number scroll across the screen. "Hey, Mike." he greeted. 

"Josh, I just finished a meeting at the White House. Donna said you were coming back here." Mike said. 

"Yeah. Is something wrong?" 

"No. I'll hang out and wait for you. How long are you going to be?" 

"I'm just heading back." 

"Okay. I'll just stay here and hit on Donna then." 

"Yeah, you do that, buddy, and I'll just break your kneecaps when I get back." Josh snapped his cell phone shut and turned back to Amy. 

"You should care about the President's image." she replied. 

"I do care about the President's image, Amy, but I'm not afraid of you. You wouldn't be stupid enough to start something with me over who I'm living with." 

"Why's that?" 

"Because you need the First Lady." he said rising. "And you can't move your agenda without her, and if she's pissed at you for trying to make the President look bad, she'll bury you, and you know it." 

"I think you underestimate my relationship with Abbey." Amy smiled sweetly. 

"No, you overestimate the political relationship you have with the First Lady of the United States." Josh replied heading towards her office door. "And you should change the artwork around here because it's freaky." 

He made his way back to the White House and found Mike waiting for him in his office with Donna. 

"You seriously haven't been hitting on her, have you?" He demanded walking in. 

"You'll never know." Mike replied. "Donna said you were meeting with Amy Gardner?" 

"Yeah." 

"Is she still as hot as she was in college?" 

"She's still as annoying as she was in college." Josh replied. 

"I asked you if she was still hot though." 

"I don't think he's going to answer you in front of me." Donna smiled. 

"Oh yeah. Sorry, Donna." Mike said sheepishly. 

"What did you want to show me?" Josh asked. 

"I found a pattern in the attacks." Mike replied. 

"Hold on, Mike." Josh interrupted looking over to Donna. "Are you okay hearing this?" 

"Yeah." she nodded. 

"Really?" he asked unsure. She nodded again. 

"All right." he sighed. 

Mike pulled out a map of the DC and surrounding area. "On this map, I've marked each town where the attacks occurred. On this transparency, I've connected the dots." Mike laid the clear overlay over the map and Donna sucked in a shocked breath. Josh picked up her hand in his and squeezed. 

"It's his sign." Josh replied. 

"Yup." Mike confirmed. 

"Well, that's fucked up." Josh breathed out. 

"Yup." Mike repeated. 

"Why isn't the middle filled in?" Donna asked quietly. "The lines stop before they cross." 

"Well, I haven't filled it in yet because an attack hasn't occurred in that area yet." Mike hedged. 

"What area is it?" Josh asked squinting closer to read the map. 

"Well, if he attacks exactly where the lines cross," Mike began. 

"Yeah." Josh prompted. 

"The White House."


	12. Zodiac

"Mike thinks this guy's going to come after Donna again?" Leo asked Josh as they stood in the Chief of Staff's office. 

"Mike thinks the next attack is going to happen in the vicinity of the White House." Josh replied. Mike's revelation was rather startling to Josh and Donna. Once again, it made her more introverted again, and she was beginning to get headaches more frequently. Abbey had said the headaches were more likely from stress than anything related to the trauma, but it did little to appease Josh's growing anxiety. 

"How does this lunatic think he's going to pull something off in the White House?" Leo retorted. "The place is crawling with secret service, FBI, marines." 

"Well, IF his next target is at the White House, common sense would say the last victim will also be suicide by cop. He pays his big homage and then bites it." 

"This is exactly why you aren't paid to write by the way." Leo replied dryly. 

"The State of the Union is in two hours." Josh reminded Leo. 

"Because I'm stupid and have completely missed Ed and Larry consistently feeding Toby and Sam oxygen." Leo replied. "What's your point?" 

"This building is going to be busting at the seams with people tonight." 

"So take Donna home after the speech." Leo said. 

"We can't not be here, Joey's polling tonight." 

"And this being my first year in politics, I would have no idea what to do with that polling information when it comes in." 

"Donna won't let me take her home, I already brought it up." Josh sighed dejectedly. 

"Oh for crying out loud, Josh." Leo scoffed. "I realize I'm the guy in the room with the failed marriage, so I'm probably the last one that should talk, but I'm going to say this anyway. You may not be the boss in the personal relationship, but professionally, you are most certainly her boss. Send her home." 

"When have you ever seen any evidence of that? Have you actually watched us work?" 

"Josh." 

"Leo, there's extra security here, police, FBI, secret service, none of which are going to follow us home. It's better that she be surrounded by people with guns." 

"You just said..." 

"I know, but still. I'm freaked out, but I think she's safer here." Josh confessed. 

"All right." Leo sighed. "Mike's been liasing with Ron Butterfield, so they'll have it covered." 

"Kay." said Josh. He headed back to his office and stopped just inside the bullpen when he saw Joey and Kenny talking with Donna. Donna seemed withdrawn from the conversation and her posture was a little stiff. Josh walked over and put his hand lightly on Donna's back. 

"Hey, Joey; hey, Kenny." He greeted. 

"Hi, Josh." Kenny interpreted. "We're heading over to the polling bank now, so I can give the callers last minute instructions. I'll be back tonight when I have the first round of numbers back." 

"Remember, Joey, you only bring me back good news." Josh quipped. 

"Right, Josh." Kenny continued to interpret. "I'll be sure to doctor the numbers to suit your needs." 

"That's what I like to hear." He laughed. Kenny and Joey left the bullpen and Josh rounded on Donna. "Are you all right?" She nodded. "You seemed sort of dazed." 

"Is it hot in here?" she asked. 

"No." 

"I'm all right." she nodded. 

"Let's go home anyway." Josh suggested. "I'll get us an escort." 

"I'm fine; get back to work." 

"Isn't that my line?" 

"You dropped it." 

"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked again. 

"We're in the White House." she reminded. "You freak me out when you get all concerned about me like this here." 

"Don't misdirect me." 

"Just go in your office and do some work." she ordered shooing him away. He gave her one last look and turned back to his office. The truth was, she was unnerved and she wanted to be alone. She couldn't tell him what the problem was. She was spooked and she really didn't have a specific reason to be. She was safe in the White House. It was a fortress. You had to go through two security checkpoints to get to the West Wing, including a metal detector and a pat down. Nobody could sneak a weapon through. It was the State of the Union; the place was crawling with security. 

****************************

Josh hugged Donna tightly as the bullpen celebrated the news of the polling numbers from the speech. Everyone was cheering, and hugging, and pouring champagne. Things were looking up; something was going right. 

"We're going to go over those downstairs, Joey." Toby said to her. "If you could meet us down there." 

"Sure." she said. 

The senior staff disbursed, taking care of various things before they all met in the basement conference room for an initial strategy session on the numbers. 

"Donna." Donna turned at the sound of her name spoken by Joey herself. "Are you going downstairs with the others?" 

"Yeah. Josh'll want me in there." Donna nodded. 

"Would you mind making enough copies of the numbers and bringing them with you? I don't recall seeing a machine down there. I'm going to run to the ladies room. I'll meet you down there and help you organize them." 

"Sure." Donna smiled. Joey smiled her thanks and disappeared from the bullpen. Donna quickly shot off the copies Joey requested and left the bullpen, heading downstairs. It had completely slipped her mind to let Josh know she'd meet him down there. 

She smiled as she walked through the corridors of the White House heading down to the basement room the senior staff used for the M.S. strategy meetings. These numbers were good news. This will definitely unstress Josh a little bit. Between re-election and everything that was happening with her, she as afraid he was going to unspool soon. 

She made it to the conference room. There was no longer a guard standing at the door. They'd been gone for months now. She walked into the room and crossed to the other side of the table, putting the copies down. She heard the door open and looked up, expecting to see Joey. 

"You!" she gasped. 

"That's right, Donna, me." 

She heard the shattering of glass, and then the room was plunged into darkness. 

"Kenny?" 

"I'll admit you weren't supposed to come down here. It wasn't you that was supposed to walk through the door." Kenny said into the darkness. Donna tried to move away from the sound of his voice. She couldn't see anything, but he was between her and the door, The bonus to that was, he couldn't see her either. "I never intended for you to die. You might have figured that out by now. You were my debut, my announcement to the world. I just wanted you to be punished." 

"For what?" 

"You can't do the things you do, Donna. You can't smile and flirt with men you have no intention of dating." 

Donna was confused by his words. She didn't recall Kenny ever flirting with her. Did he? 

"It's all right. I'm not talking about me. I'm already spoken for. My soulmate is about to be banded to me forever. It was supposed to be her walking through the door right now, but since it was you, I'm afraid you're going to have to go first." 

"I'm not scared of you, Kenny. You couldn't get a gun in here. What are you going to do? Throw a chair through the dark?" 

"No. I'm going to stab you with this rather large kitchen knife I got from the Mess." He replied evenly. "Unfortunately, it's going to make you number 12 then and she was supposed to be 12, but either way, she's going with me." 

"Who's SHE?" Donna asked. She was stalling for time. The longer she kept her calling, the better chance she had of getting out of here alive. 

"Oh, Donna." Kenny laughed. It sounded disturbing as it rang off the darkened brick walls of the room. "Please don't tell me you really are that flighty. The dumb blonde routine may work on Josh, but not on me." 

"Joey?" Donna gasped. 

"Of course." 

"You've worked for her for 11 years. How could you do this to her?" 

"I'm immortalizing her, Donna. We'll be together for eternity. We'll die together." 

"You're going to stab yourself?" 

"No. Sadly, I'll be shot by the secret service when they see I've killed two people." 

"The secret service isn't going to shoot you." 

"For committing two murders in the White House?" 

"The secret service shoots people who are threats to the First Family or the Chief of Staff. You're three floors down from them." 

She felt the stairs behind her and stumbled as she turned to run up them. She pulled open the door and the light from the hall flooded in. She paused for a split second to look into the room with the light behind her. She screamed as his face came out of the darkness, his hand swinging a knife maniacally. She stumbled through the door and ran, with him hot on her heels.


	13. Zodiac

Josh wandered out of his office in search of Donna. The bullpen was still full with people talking about the numbers and drifting back and forth between there and the reception. He was ready to head downstairs and he was looking for her to walk with him. He stopped when he didn't see her anywhere. 

"Donna!" he called out, in case she was just blocked by people and couldn't hear him. No response. 

"Have you seen Donna?" he asked Ed. 

"Not for a little while, no." Ed replied. 

Josh moved around the bullpen. When he was sure she wasn't there, he moved over to the reception, stopping people along the way to see if they've seen her. He saw Bonnie leaving the ladies' room and stopped her. 

"Bonnie, is Donna in there?" 

"Nope, empty." she smiled and walked away. 

What the hell? Where the hell was she? She knew he was nervous about tonight. There's no way she would have left the bullpen without telling him. During the working day was one thing, but now, with all these people around, she knew he was freaking out about it. Mike and Ron were standing outside the security office and Josh wandered over to them. 

"I can't find Donna." Josh said to Mike. 

"Well, there's a lot of people around here." Mike said. "You're probably just missing each other." 

"No, it's weird." Josh said shaking his head. 

"Agent Butterfield," a security guard said. "We've lost visual in sector B-2." Everyone's attention was drawn to the blank television screen. 

"Was the feed on B-2 when you lost visual?" Ron asked. 

"No, sir. It turned to that camera and there was nothing there." 

"Was anyone in there when last you saw?" 

"Yes, sir, Ms. Moss." 

Josh's eyes widened when he heard that. "Ron, where's section B-2?" Josh demanded. 

Ron looked over at Josh and paused for a moment. "Sagittarius." he said by way of answer. Josh's eyes widened in fear and he took off running. Ron and Mike ran after him. 

He pushed through the throngs of people between him and the stairs, Mike and Ron right with him. Ron called for back up and crashed the West Wing as a precaution. People started in surprised curiosity as they passed by. As they got two levels down, he saw Donna running pell mell for him. Oh thank God! She was all right. 

"Josh!" she screamed. "Go! It's him!" 

He saw Kenny following quickly behind her. What the hell? The killer was chasing Donna AND Kenny? His eyes widened in horror as he saw the size of the knife Kenny was carrying. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the immediate danger of Kenny registered. Josh caught Donna to him and immediately turned, so his back was to Kenny and between him and Donna. He felt a strong arm push hard against him, and he and Donna fell to the floor into the wall, Donna beneath him. 

A shot rang out and Donna screamed. That's when things stopped registering with Josh. 

"Target's down." Donna heard Ron say. She looked beyond Josh and saw three secret service agents struggling and subduing Kenny. She looked up to Josh and he looked pale and his eye were squinted shut. 

"Josh!" she called bringing her hands up to his face. Dear God, someone shot a gun! 

Gunshots...sirens...lights...a string quartet...Toby...a bitter taste in his mouth... 

"Josh!" 

...Donna...Donna? Josh was becoming vaguely cognizant of her. She was touching his cheeks and kissing his face. He opened his eyes and focused on her. "You're okay." she whispered. 

"You're okay." he whispered back. She smiled and he took a deep breath and pulled himself off of her. They stood up and saw the secret service agents pulling Kenny away from them, another one picked up the knife with a gloved hand. 

"Are you two all right?" Mike asked them. 

"Yeah." Donna nodded. "I smacked my face on the wall, but I think that's preferable to getting stabbed." 

"Was it you that pushed me?" Josh asked Mike. 

"Yeah." Mike nodded. 

"Agent Casper, you need to come with me." Ron said. 

"Why?" Josh asked. 

"It's okay, Josh. I fired a gun in the White House." Mike replied. "You're not allowed to do that." 

"What?! You subdued a killer! They would have done it!" Josh exclaimed. 

"No, they wouldn't have." Mike said. "It's all right. I'll call you later. You guys are going to need to go with the secret service for a bit." Mike walked away calmly with Ron. Another agent was just about to lead Josh and Donna to their command post in the White House when the rest of the senior staff came barreling into the hall. 

"Are you guys all right!?" CJ demanded hugging them both tightly. 

"Yeah." Josh nodded. 

"We heard a gun shot." Sam said. 

"It was Mike. He shot Kenny." Josh explained. 

"Kenny Joey's interpreter?" Sam asked. "What the hell did he shoot him for?" 

"Because he was chasing me with a large knife." Donna replied. 

"KENNY?!" CJ, Sam, and Toby chorused in disbelief. 

"Mr. Lyman, you and Ms. Moss have to come with me now." the agent said holding out her arm to them. 

"Okay." Josh agreed. "Sam, would you call over to state and have them send an interpreter over for Joey? I'm sure she'll be spending the next few hours with the FBI." 

"Sure." Sam nodded. Josh put his arm around Donna's waist and she laid her head on his shoulder. Together they followed the agent out of the hallway. 

***************************

 

"Hey, Mike." Donna greeted opening the apartment door the next morning to let him in. He looked extremely tired, but he had a brown bag and three coffees with him. 

"I brought breakfast." he announced holding up the bag and the coffee. 

"Wow! Thanks!" Donna smiled ushering him to the kitchen table, as Josh came in still in pajama pants and a t-shirt, stretching and yawning. 

"What the hell happened to you last night?" Josh asked him. "Did you get arrested?" 

"No." Mike laughed. "It'll be fine. I discharged my weapon in the White House; that's a no-no. Justice and Treasury are going to fight about it for a bit. I might get suspended for a short time, but it'll be all right." 

"What the hell? Why?" Josh demanded again. "You subdued a killer." 

"It's just a difference in department procedures." Mike dismissed. "The secret service would have overpowered him physically. He was a threat IN the White House, but not to the First Family, whom they're charged with protecting. I, on the other hand, am charged with protecting you, and I draw my gun when I'm doing that. The two departments will hash it out- -" 

"And the deputy chief of staff will step him, get the President involved, and he'll threaten their jobs and they'll drop it." Josh finished. 

"Josh, it's going to be fine." Mike assured. 

"You're absolutely right, Mike. It is." 

Mike shook his head at his friend's stubborness, but dropped the subject. "Your friend Joey is a bit freaked out this morning." 

"I would imagine." Donna said. "Josh, you should go see her today." 

"I will." he nodded. 

"Did anybody talk to Kenny?" Donna asked. 

"Oh yeah." Mike said. "We spent several hours with him. In fact, I was just coming back from there. I was on my way home to go to bed for a few hours." 

"Oh, Mike. We don't want to keep you." Donna said. "Go home and sleep. You can talk to us later." 

"He can tough it out." Josh argued. "I want to know what the hell happened." 

"Josh." Donna sighed. 

"Donna, Josh is actually right." Mike smiled. "If I thought sleep was more important I would have gone home first." 

"Couple of jackasses, you two..." she muttered sipping her coffee and moving to the couch in the living room where she could be more comfortable and still be part of the conversation. 

"Okay. Well, first of all," Mike began. "The guy is obviously not as sane and unassuming as everyone thought he was. Ms. Lucas is beside herself; she had NO idea he was capable of something like this. Apparently, this was something of an homage to his relationship with her, or what he thought was a relationship with her. He apparently was obsessed with her." 

"He said she was supposed to be his 12th; that it was going to be a murder suicide." Donna supplied thinking back to her chilling conversation with Kenny in the dark the night before. "He was planning on the secret service killing him when they discovered he'd killed Joey." 

"Yeah. He didn't know that much about secret service procedure, it turns out." Mike nodded. "He said he hadn't been intending on harming Donna again, but she came in the room when he was expecting Joey and rather than just let her go back to work and not suspect anything, I guess he thought he had to kill her." 

"Did he say why he didn't kill her to begin with?" Josh asked. "I don't understand why he left her alive." 

"He said he wanted to punish me." Donna said quietly. 

"Yeah." Mike nodded again. "It doesn't make a lot of sense, but then again, psychopaths rarely make sense. He says that he never intended Donna to be a victim, but he wanted to punish her. He said she couldn't act like that. She couldn't flirt with men she didn't want to date. And he said that Donna had been trying to set Joey up with Josh and that he didn't want that to happen. He wanted her to stop trying to set them up. I think originally, Joey was to be 11 and Kenny was supposed to be number 12, but when he attacked you, you sort of became number one. He actually shrugged and said the "fathers" weren't successful in killing everyone either." 

"The fathers?" Donna asked. 

"The two original Zodiacs." Mike replied. 

"So what's next? The trial?" Josh asked. 

"There will be a trial, yes." Mike nodded. 

"You don't need Donna to actual testify, right?" Josh replied. "You can get by with just a deposition?" 

"Well..." Mike began. 

"Joshua!" Donna yelped cutting Mike off. "Of course I'm going to testify! He came after me TWICE! I survived and he confessed to me. Yeah, I'm testifying." 

"Donna, there's going to be huge attention on this trial, and you're going to only add to the frenzy." Josh countered. "You'll be hounded by the press, and testifying in court is emotional." 

Donna picked up Joshua the Donkey where he was resting on the couch and hurled him viciously at Josh. He caught the projectile surprised. 

"You're a bigger jackass than he is!" she hissed. 

"That doesn't need to be decided now." Mike jumped in. "The trial will still be a couple of months off. Plus, if he pleads insanity, it'll be a whole different thing anyway." Mike stood up and grabbed the remainder of his coffee. "For now, I'm going to bed. Josh, you really should go talk to your friend. She really is pretty freaked out." 

"I bet she is." Josh said. 

Mike disappeared from the apartment and Josh and Donna watched each other for a moment. Donna was still ready to fight with him over the trial, but the longer he looked at her, the softer his gaze got. "That's some story." he said softly to her. 

"Yeah." she replied, the fight draining out of her temporarily. 

"What do you say we get ready for work?" He smirked. "I'm going to go jump in the shower." 

"We should probably conserve water." she smiled. 

"We should." He nodded smiling back. "We're democrats; we're environmentalists."


	14. Zodiac

Josh came home to find Donna curled up on the couch in front of the t.v. When she saw him, she shut it off and sat up. 

"How's Joey?" Donna asked anxiously. 

"She's a wreck." Josh sighed sitting down next to her. "She kept apologizing; she's afraid we'll never want to work with her again. I think she's in shock. I think she truly had no idea that he felt that way about her, or was even capable of something like this. She's devastated really." 

"Poor Joey." Donna sighed. 

"Poor Donna." Josh countered. "You were one of his victims, twice. He chased you through the White House with a knife." 

"You'd think I'd really learn to expect the unexpected there by now, wouldn't you?" 

"You okay going back there tomorrow for work?" Josh asked lightly. He was worried that she'd be freaked out, and he wouldn't blame her in the slightest if she were. 

"I'm sure I'll be fine." Donna nodded. "I do think that I'm going to petition my supervisor to suggest making the chefs in the mess lock up the knives." She smiled sideways to Josh. 

"Your supervisor is all over that." Josh assured. "But really? You think you'll be okay?" 

"Yeah. Besides, you'll be there." 

"Yes, I will." he assured. 

"We're not really going to keep fighting over the trial, right?" Donna replied. Josh groaned and dropped his head to the back of the couch. "I mean, Josh, they'll just subpoena me anyway." 

"I know." he sighed. "I just...they can just be so stressful..." 

"Well, I'm sure you'll be there with me, so I'll be fine." she said. 

"Yes, I will be." 

She dropped her head onto his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her. They were content just to sit there together peacefully for a little while. 

"Hey Donna?" 

"Hmm?" 

"I have any idea." 

"Oh shit." 

"It should be noted I usually have good ideas." 

"Secret plan to fight inflation?" 

"Okay, maybe not that one." 

"Going to try to pull information out of Sam's prostitute friend?" 

"You know about that?" 

"Lighting a fire in Andrew Johnson's welded shut fireplace?" 

"Okay, they're not all nobel winning thoughts, but this one is actually a good idea." 

"What is it?" she asked. 

"Let's take a vacation." he announced. 

"Really?" 

"Yeah." 

"You and me?" 

"Who'd you think I was referring to?" 

"Out of the office at the same time?" 

"No. I thought we'd do it in shifts. You go Sunday through Wednesday, them come back and I'll go Thursday through Saturday." he quipped. 

"Josh!" she scoffed smacking his arm. "You really want to go on vacation? Like out of Washington, vacation vacation?" 

"Out of Washington." he confirmed. 

"Where do you want to go?" she smiled. 

"I don't care." he said softly. "Just so long as I can see that smile the entire time." 

"You're too good to me." She said still smiling. 

"That's not what you say at work!" he laughed 

"Well, I don't know if you'll ever hear me say that to you at work." she replied. "Where are you taking me? This was your idea; I am expecting you to pay for this little adventure." 

"Of course." 

"Where are we going?" 

"Well, I seem to remember you pointing out to me that I've never taken you to Hawaii." he noted. He smiled as her eyes went wide and her smile got brighter. He loved how just when he didn't think she could smile bigger, she could. 

"You have never, in fact, taken me to Hawaii." She said as he felt tears welling up in her eyes. 

"Quite neglectful on my part." 

"Very much so." she nodded. 

"We could lay on the beach all day." he suggested. "Of course, we'll have to see if Coppertone makes body armor for your pasty ass skin." 

"Alabaster, Joshua." 

"Of course." 

"We could go see the volcanoes." 

"You could wear a grass skirt." 

"We could go see Pearl Harbor." 

"You could do one of those hula dances for me." 

"It sounds like we're having two different vacations here, Joshua." 

"Yeah. Mine is sounding more fun than yours." 

"I could get a sarong." Donna said huskily, turning to nibble on his ear. 

"I don't know what that is, but it certainly sound sexy as hell." he squeaked. 

"Oh, it is." she assured, running her hand up and down the inside of his thigh. "And I have this really tiny bikini too." 

"You do?" 

"Oh yes. It shows a lot of skin though, so I'll need you to help me with all that sunblock to help me get the hard to reach places." 

"Oh, they won't be hard for me to reach." 

"Aloha, Joshua." 

"I love you, Donnatella." 

THE END


End file.
